Thursday, July 16, 2015

On Shelves Now: WE'VE GOT A JOB: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March by Cynthia Levinson

180 p.
Publisher: Peachtree Publishers
Ages: 9 to 14

We’ve Got a Job tells the little-known story of the 4,000 black elementary-, middle-, and high school students who voluntarily went to jail in Birmingham, Alabama, between May 2 and May 11, 1963. Fulfilling Mahatma Gandhi’s and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s precept to “fill the jails,” they succeeded—where adults had failed—in desegregating one of the most racially violent cities in America. Focusing on four of the original participants who have participated in extensive interviews, We’ve Got a Job recounts the astonishing events before, during, and after the Children’s March.